1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processing of a semiconductor device, and more particularly to chamber design and systems used for etching of semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fabrication of semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits, memory cells, and the like, a series of manufacturing operations are performed to define features on substrates, such as semiconductor wafers. Some manufacturing operations, such as etching and deposition, include plasma processing operations that are performed in a plasma processing chamber in which a process gas is transformed into plasma comprising reactive constituents that can perform work on the substrate, when present and exposed thereto. During such plasma processing operations, the substrate is held on an electrostatic chuck and exposed to the plasma. The electrostatic chuck is defined to establish an electrostatic field that attracts the substrate to a supporting surface of the electrostatic chuck, thereby securing the substrate to the electrostatic chuck during plasma processing operations.
During plasma etching process, non-uniform etching can adversely impact device yields from the substrate. As the size of the critical dimension of features formed on the substrate shrinks with each new generation of devices and as the substrate size increases to facilitate production of higher number of devices, etch non-uniformity requirements become more stringent and it becomes more critical to provide improvements to increase device yield. Controlling etch non-uniformity is a goal to achieve in order to enable more advanced technology devices to be produced in a cost-effective manner.
It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise.